The invention will be discussed generally with respect to deployment of a stent graft into the thoracic aorta but is not so limited and may apply to deployment into other body lumens.
The thoracic arch has a significant curve which may be compounded, that is the curve may exist in more than one plane. This means that a delivery device, which in prior art devices has been relatively rigid, engages significantly against the walls of a vessel into which it is deployed and can cause unnecessary trauma and distortion of the vessel. If a stent graft is subsequently deployed into such a distorted vessel then when the delivery device is removed then the stent graft will be distorted when the vessel returns to its original configuration with undesirable results.
At the same time a degree of rigidity of a deployment device is desirable so that it can be pushed from outside the patient through a tortuous vasculature via the femoral artery, common iliac artery, aortic bifurcation, descending aorta and into the thoracic aorta and aortic arch.
The present invention proposes a delivery device which will assist with overcoming these opposing problems or at least provide a practitioner with a useful alternative.
Throughout this specification the term distal with respect to a portion of the aorta, a deployment device or a stent graft is intended to mean the portion of the aorta, deployment device or stent graft further away in the direction of blood flow away from the heart and the term proximal is intended to mean the portion of the aorta, deployment device or end of the stent graft nearer to the heart. When applied to other vessels similar terms such as caudal and cranial should be understood.